Ascension Catholic Academy is a consortium of four Catholic schools (currently St. Peter Claver, St. John Paul II, Ascension, and St. Pascal Regional) that center racial equity and unleash scholar potential in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area.  
 
GHR partnered with the Academy to help two schools (Ascension and St. Peter Claver) meet state requirements to open childcare centers on their campuses. Beginning in September 2022, this funding expands ACA’s Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC) initiative to all four schools in the Academy, ensuring that regular classrooms being converted over to ECLC spaces are up to code, equipped with the necessary furniture and learning materials, and are spaces families and scholars can be proud of and excited to learn in. 
 
Expanding the initiative provides families in the most underserved communities access to early childhood learning solutions. Close to 75% of kindergartners at ACA schools enter the classroom with no pre-k experience. Ensuring scholars are kindergarten ready is crucial to their holistic, long-term success. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on childcare programs, with many being forced to close permanently. The lack of affordable, high-quality ECLC programs has forced many parents and guardians to forgo returning to the workforce, risking their financial security. Opening two new childcare centers at these schools will offer families in the community much needed relief.  

Early childhood learning is an essential component of closing the education opportunity gap, a key aspect of GHR’s Local Domain strategy. Through this partnership, we anticipate improved academic outcomes for the ECLC scholars entering kindergarten, as well as stronger retention of families and scholars moving from pre-K to K-8 classrooms.  
 
GHR works to design new and replicable models for high-quality Catholic education. Learn more about this work here.

From FHI360: 

"As schools across the U.S. struggle to recover learning loss due to COVID-19, one school we work with is using a data-driven approach that is helping students make up lost ground.

For the past seven years, we have partnered with GHR Foundation to help a network of high-needs K-8 Catholic schools in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area strengthen their capacity to track, store, and use math and reading assessment data to inform instruction and assess gaps. These schools face many of the same pandemic-related learning challenges as public schools have.

Recently, we have focused on analyzing annual assessment data to help measure COVID-19 learning loss. We maintain online data dashboards and provide annual reports for each school to summarize data on overall student proficiency and growth. We look for signs of learning recovery across student groups by disaggregating data by subject/content area, grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and by examining trends before and after the pandemic started.

We found that math proficiency at the network schools overall continued to decline since the pandemic began. However, at one school, St. Pascal Regional Catholic School, students demonstrated a remarkable recovery in math. While math scores at the school fell 12 percentage points between fall 2019 and fall 2020 – in line with the trends in math scores at other network schools – scores rose 15 percentage points in fall 2021, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

St. Pascal Regional’s principal, Inna Collier Paske, cites the school’s implementation of individualized learning plans (ILPs) for the improvement. Having started implementing ILPs the year prior to the pandemic, St Pascal Regional is unique amongst their peers in both implementation and intensity of their ILPs. For the past four years they have continually reviewed and revised their approach to reflect their needs and priorities, expanded ILPs to include additional subjects, and incorporated social emotional learning goals alongside academic ones. At strategic points throughout each year ILPs provide a snapshot of each student’s gaps and strengths that teachers can use to plan instruction and support that will help their students thrive.

We visited the school in 2023 to learn more about its approach. We conducted nine interviews with school administrators (2), teachers (4), and caregivers (3); observed the kindergarten, second, and fourth grade classrooms during math and literacy instruction; and participated in a guided tour of the school. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and we reviewed transcripts and observational notes to identify generalizable themes from our visit. Collier Paske and GHR reviewed these themes for validation."

Read the full case study here. 

Implemented in schools serving predominantly under-resourced neighborhoods and families, City Connects helps teachers and schools provide integrated supports to address the in- and out-of-school needs of students and foster their strengths. Providing holistic support to students facing external obstacles to learning is a core aspect of GHR's Education strategy in Twin Cities Catholic schools and animates the Foundation’s long-term partnership with the program. A recent piece from the Boston Globe recognizes City Connects' inspiring founder: 

From the Boston Globe: 

"Her own humble beginnings, and the help she received along the way, drive Mary Walsh’s passion for giving every child a shot at a good education and a good life.

Operating out of the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children at BC, City Connects is now helping 50,000 kids in Massachusetts, eight other states, and Ireland, the country Mary Walsh’s parents left for a better life.

For all she’s done for poor children, Mary Walsh deserved a medal. On Monday, at BC’s commencement, she got one.

BC President William Leahy handed her the Bellarmine Award, named for an Italian cardinal who was a leading intellectual figure in the Counter-Reformation. St. Bellarmine was canonized in 1930.

Appropriate, because what Mary Walsh has done to help poor kids is the work of a saint.

She never forgot where she came from, or that everybody needs a little help sometimes."

Read more.

The GHR Fellows Program at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business is a transformational undergraduate experience for students pursuing careers in business. The first cohort of GHR Fellows graduated in May 2023, stepping out into the world as principled leaders looking to create enduring value for society. 

From The University of St. Thomas Newsroom:

"Established by GHR Foundation, the GHR Fellows program reflects the spirit of former St. Thomas trustee Gerry Rauenhorst, who believed that entrepreneurial creativity inspires solutions that improve lives. Fellows are taught to be principled leaders capable of advancing the common good with a global mindset.

Amy Goldman, CEO and chair of GHR Foundation and vice chair for the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees, was on hand for one of the first meetings of the inaugural cohort in 2019. The original purpose then – to further deepen the impact of St. Thomas through its graduates – remains as critical as ever.

'Our shared intention is to educate principled business leaders the world needs,” Goldman said. “As this first cohort prepares to embark on their careers beyond St. Thomas, each graduate will embody our intention as they live and work for the common good.'"

Read more. 

GHR partner, Twin Cities-based St. Jerome Catholic School, provides Pre-K to 8 education to over 200 students, preparing them for the academic, social, and spiritual opportunities and challenges they may face in today's world. With talented, supportive teachers and staff, and a keen eye for data and intentional planning, the school strives for consistent academic growth. In the past five years, the school has welcomed a large community of multi-lingual learners who are part of a Karen refugee community. Word has spread that the school is a safe, nurturing and excellent school home for many recent immigrants from Myanmar and Burma, where children will find their social and emotional needs met. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to virtual instruction, many students at St. Jerome missed significant amounts of instruction time. This has led to observable learning loss, particularly among the many emergent bilingual students still developing their expertise in academic English. In addressing the same, St. Jerome’s principal has identified middle school students as the target population to participate in a new educational model of direct instruction, small group interventions and homework assistance for the next three years in their learning journey. 

With support from GHR for this new model, the school is providing targeted instruction for core subjects, hired an additional English teacher, and hired an intervention specialist who will work directly with students and teachers to monitor student progress and implement changes. “With the small class sizes and a significant amount of 1:1 instruction that has been able to occur, we have seen students go from below to above grade level in their language usage scores. Also, students who are already highly achieving are getting above grade level instruction allowing them to stretch," said Teacher Emma McGlone.

Students are already showing signs of benefiting academically from these interventions – an uplifting sign for the future of this project. A middle school student shared, “We can work at our own pace and we get attention according to what we need, because the teachers know us really well.” 

GHR works to design new and replicable models for high-quality Catholic education. Learn more about this work here. 

From The Opus College of Business and Schulze School of Entrepreneurship Newsroom:

"Brianna Edwards has a big, bold and flavorful dream.

The creator behind a line of low-sodium spice mixes, LOV3 IT S3ASONING, Edwards wants to see her bottles on store shelves across the country. To get there, she’s turned to the University of St. Thomas and the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship.

Edwards is part of the very first cohort of the Community Entrepreneurship Program. The 10-month, hands-on program, offered in conjunction with the Small Business Development Center, supports aspiring Twin Cities entrepreneurs as they develop big ideas and prepare for life as small business owners. 

'I’m a really big dreamer,” Edwards said. 'I’ve had to learn to take it step by step. This program helped me figure out that this is a marathon not a sprint.'"

Through our Twin Cities Racial Equity (TCRE) initiative, GHR works to be of service to and in partnership with Black, Indigenous, and people of color, (BI-POC) businesses and communities in the development and acquisition of assets that advance and provide access to economic opportunity and community development. Learn more about our work here and read more about the University of St. Thomas Community Entrepreneurship Program here. 

The GHR Fellows Program at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business aims to support and strengthen students as principled leaders capable of creating enduring value for society. The program is grounded in the shared values of GHR and the University of St. Thomas, of working in service to the common good.

The fellowship program is funded by a $50M grant to UST from the Foundation. Ten students are added each year as incoming freshmen to this highly competitive, transformational undergraduate experience for students pursuing careers in business. Fellows receive full-tuition scholarships to the University of St. Thomas and customized programming designed to deliver leadership experiences, including global exposure. The first cohort of GHR Fellows graduates in the spring of 2023.

​Made in partnership with UST, this video features interviews with a few of the GHR Fellows, as they reflect on their accomplishments so far, and consider the promise of what lies ahead.
​
As the GHR Foundation Board and staff came together in solidarity, community and celebration at the end of 2022, this video offered a reminder of how we have all lived deeply into creating enduring value in an ever-changing world around us, alongside our partners. 
 

From The Star Tribune: 

"For 73 years, St. Pascal school has operated in St. Paul — now the last remaining Catholic grade school on the East Side, where many used to send their graduates off to high school in crowded yellow buses or in cars with tape decks blasting.

Still, its enrollment has fallen, and there have been worries about St. Pascal's future.

But as of this month, the school has new life — thanks to a consortium of schools tailored to urban families in need. St. Pascal is joining Ascension Catholic Academy, a Minneapolis-based group that has provided centralized leadership and other supports to three other Twin Cities Catholic schools since 2016."

Read more. 

From Pioneer Press: 

"Early in the morning in November 2019, Inna Collier Paske, principal of St. Pascal Regional School, had a vision. “God talked to me at that time. He asked me why I work at St. Pascal, and I said it’s because I want to share my faith,” she said.

Her school’s enrollment was dropping fast, and so was financial support from parishioners.

School officials came up with four pillars for the East Side school to live by: “Believe, Learn, Love and Connect.” Students posted strong test scores, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

And earlier this month, the school was welcomed into a consortium that should secure St. Pascal’s future at a time when many Catholic schools have been forced to close.

The consortium, Ascension Catholic Academy, was created in 2016 with major support from the GHR Foundation, founded by commercial real estate developer Gerald Rauenhorst and his wife, Henrietta. The pair, in life and in death, have applied much of their philanthropy to supporting Catholic education.

The foundation, now run by their daughter, Amy Goldman, sought in 2015 to establish a new model for funding Catholic schools."

Read more. 

From The Catholic Spirit:

"Founded in 1993 out of five Minneapolis Catholic schools — Holy Name, Holy Rosary, Incarnation, St. Albert the Great and St. Stephen — Risen Christ is best known for its immersion program. With the school’s “50/50 model,” students receive 50% of their instruction in English each day and 50% in Spanish. Every student receives daily instruction in English and Spanish literacy. Grade-level teaching teams include one teacher fluent in English and one fluent in Spanish.

The effort began with the fall 2014 kindergarten class, and one grade has been added each year. Today, only eighth-graders did not start under the immersion program.

That model attracted Sonia Rosas, 28, of Minneapolis, and her husband, Jose, to Risen Christ. They have a 10-year-old daughter in third grade, and a 6-year-old daughter in kindergarten. In choosing the school, Sonia Rosas said it was important that students learn in Spanish and English, that it is a Catholic school, and she heard that people at the school “are very supportive with families and have a deep understanding (of) the culture and the language.”"

Read more.